“Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”
The historian will draw many great lessons from the life of Roosevelt. His devotion to public duty, his advocacy of the square deal, his hundred per cent. Americanism, his superhuman activity in many fields, will be outstanding features of every biography.
Perhaps, however, the following extract from a memorial tribute made by Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis sums up his characteristics as well as anything that can be said in a few words:
HOPE FOR RICH MEN’S SONS
“One of the logical inferences from the successful career of Roosevelt,” said Dr. Hillis, “is that even the richest man’s son can succeed in this republic. In the republic, for some strange reason, a prejudice has grown up in favor of the poor boy and against the son of the palace and the private car. Little by little, extreme wealth has become a handicap, and the child of the millionaire is out of the race before he enters it. It is a real obstacle for a man who aspires to political office and honor to fall heir to enormous wealth. The favorites of fortune are those who drive the mule along the canal path or in their teens support a widowed mother, or come from a log cabin to the great city.
“Now and then, however, there is a youth who uses his wealth instead of abusing it. Mr. Roosevelt’s entire career is an incentive to rich men’s sons. Born in a great house; a graduate of Harvard—rich man’s college; traveled abroad; a Civil Service Commissioner with George William Curtis, an intellectual aristocrat; Police Commissioner of New York; a cattle man on the plains of Montana; leader of the Rough Riders in Cuba; Governor of New York; Vice-President and President of the United States—all this represents a long and brilliant career. But Lincoln did not work harder; Garfield was not more industrious; McKinley was not as close a student; Henry Clay was not more democratic; and among Mr. Roosevelt’s closest friends were untaught men, illiterate ranchers, who were full of latent intellect and sound sense. His capacity for friendship was one of the ex-President’s most striking characteristics. By his patience, his industry, his hunger for knowledge, his mingling with all sorts and conditions of men, his incessant travel, Mr. Roosevelt overcame every handicap imposed by wealth and became a hero to the rich and poor, the cultivated and the untaught, and a guide and friend and standard for all classes, in all countries.”
* * * * *
On January 8, 1919, Theodore Roosevelt was buried on the hillside of the Oyster Bay Cemetery, near the blue waters of the Sound he loved so dearly and close to the trees and hills he had roamed among from boyhood. On his grave was dropped a wreath from an aviator who had been a friend of “Quentin, the eagle”—the hero son who had died in France.
Two months later, “Bill” Sewall came down from the Maine woods to visit the resting place of the man who had been his companion on many a journey into the wilderness. “It’s just the kind of place Theodore would like to be buried!” he said.
THE END.
